"Robert Pattinson once again outdoes himself with his commitment to the character. His performance embraces the chaos, thirst for fame, and morally grey behaviour envisioned for Hansen"

Inspired by true events from the early 2000s, Primetime recounts the events that led to Chris Hansen’s quick rise to fame and his catastrophic and seemingly inevitable fall from grace.

It’s 2006, and American television is about to change. “To Catch a Predator” is quickly becoming one of NBC’s most-watched programmes. At the helm is Chris Hansen. His show relies on sting operations, using adult actors to impersonate teenagers in online chats to trap sexual predators, lure them into real-life meetings, unmask them on live TV, and watch them being arrested.

The attention the programme receives is addictive, and Hansen manages to secure a primetime TV slot thanks to the popularity of this morbid show. But with higher stakes comes greater pressure. One high-profile operation could turn “To Catch a Predator” into a TV sensation or break it for good.

Directed by Oppenheim, Primetime encapsulates the early 2000s’ obsession with Reality TV and the beginning of the true-crime epidemic that is still growing 20 years later.

It would be easy to paint Hansen as the hero of the story. However, his character is morally compromised. Unmasking predators on live TV is presented under the guise of justice, but fame is Hansen’s ultimate goal. His motives become even clearer through the subplot in which he tries to dodge cheating allegations about to surface in the tabloids. This highlights how even those who stand on the moral high ground can be corrupted in many ways.

Stylistically, the film moves at a fast pace, and the soundtrack provides the right rhythm for the story. The camerawork gives the film the peculiar feeling of watching something from the late 1980s. This is an interesting contrast, considering the events took place only 20 years ago. Yet, with the internet only beginning to become accessible to everyone and the era of flip phones, that time feels much further away from us than it actually is.

This stylistic choice also allows the audience to remain slightly detached from the story itself. Interestingly, the main focus is not the programme or the growing reality of internet predators, but rather Hansen’s increasing obsession with success and his attempts to maintain a clean public image.

Robert Pattinson once again outdoes himself with his commitment to the character. His performance embraces the chaos, thirst for fame, and morally grey behaviour envisioned for Hansen. Pattinson disappears into the role, becoming Hansen throughout the film. Yet his performance is not simply a caricature or an imitation of Hansen’s mannerisms; he inhabits the character, capturing his motivations and contradictions in a compelling way.

The rest of the cast provides the perfect ensemble to support and challenge his performance. Skyler Gisondo and Merritt Wever deserve special mention for the strong dynamic they bring to their scenes with Pattinson.

It can be challenging to bring a fairly recent story to the screen, especially when it revolves around a public figure who is still alive. While Primetime manages to avoid becoming a pantomime of real events, it never establishes a clear purpose for the story it wants to tell.

There is neither a harsh critique nor a celebration of Hansen’s work, no real attempt to condemn the sensationalisation of reality TV, and no deeper psychological exploration of how the internet has created a black hole for dangerous behaviour that can still go unchecked. The film raises all these questions without fully committing to any of them.

Ultimately, Primetime is a solid film, carried by strong performances and an engaging style, but its message remains somewhat muddy. It is clear about the kind of man Hansen is, yet less certain about what it wants the audience to take away from his story.